Anita Pallenberg’s wild life with (and without) the Rolling Stones

With Marlon she moved into a hotel in New York, where she took up with punk bands like Television and the Dead Boys, then moved again, to a mansion in Long Island, which in 1926 had been used as a location in the first film of The Great Gatsby, before finally settling in London.

Marlon says of his upbringing: “They were irresponsible, but they were very loving parents. I was always treated like an adult. They never sugar-coated anything, but they sheltered me as much as they could, especially my mother.”

When he was seven or eight, he remembers, he did Spanish guitar lessons. His teacher believed he could go on to the next level, but Richards cancelled the lessons. “He said, ‘We don’t need any more f–––––– guitar players in the family; we need more accountants.’” Marlon became a graphic designer. 

“And I do thank him for that. They both specified, don’t go into the music business or do what we did. They were deeply regretful about how it all played out in those days, and Keith still is. I’ve had him getting quite upset about the whole thing, and I’ve told him years ago – don’t worry, I’m here, I’m fine and I’m not going to be a musician, so even better.”

In 1985, after several half-hearted attempts – Marlon thinks that in the course of her life she was in and out of rehab 10 or so times – she finally emerged sober.

“She was a different person, and definitely repentant,” he says. “She was very hurt by what had happened to us and felt she had to make amends. If anything, she was overly mothering. I was like, I’m 16 years old, you don’t need to put me to bed every night. And through the rest of life she was like that.”